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This is Down House home of Charles Darwin, a very appropriate destination for a coach load of jolly Oxford Humanists. I learned a lot , e.g. That Darwin walked with his family to church  but stayed outside, and that it was not his scientific  researches that turned him off religion, but the death of his little girl .

The male protagonist in my new novel visits the Galapagos, so it was useful to read  parts of Darwin’s journal. I loved ‘disgusting clumsy lizards’ his description of the iguanas.